Thoughts on Kashrut

Kashrut are the Jewish dietary (or kosher) laws. Treif are things that aren't kosher or that go against the dietary laws. They're considered 'unclean'. One of the big ones that many people have heard about is that pork products aren't kosher (or are treif). There are many more laws to it, though. Many can't keep fully kosher, so they might do a 'kosher-style' instead. Ever since I was 14, I've had a kosher-style diet. No pork or shellfish. I hope to get the chance in the future to keep totally kosher. 

The 'laws' don't just apply to what you can and can't eat. It's also on how to properly clean things like fruit and vegetables, keep things separated, cleaning your kitchen utensils, etc. All fruit and vegetables are kosher, but you need to check for bugs and dirt. Those aren't kosher. So, there's a special way to inspect and clean them.

People tend to think that a kosher diet is healthy. It's not necessarily. If you follow it fully, that's not the reason you do it. It's a religious reason. Some people don't understand that concept though...As I've noticed with talking to people who don't know what kosher really means. They eventually say stuff like: "No, really, why do you do it? It's got to be a health reason." The only reason it might be considered healthier is everything is scrutinized. Inspected from the time they start making the product, until it's packaged. (That means every ingredient was thoroughly looked at beforehand, too.) Some hechshers or kosher stamps on products have stricter regulations than others, but they all should follow the basic laws. That being said, the products are more likely to be safe this way. They have stricter guidelines than what the USDA uses. So, if you think safer=healthier, then yeah it might fit that. But, when I think healthy, I think more nutritious. Like more vitamins, minerals, lower calories, low in fats, whole grains, etc. As an example, you can still get baked goods that essentially have no nutritional value...So, nutritionally it's not any better. 

Kosher food is broken up into 3 categories: Dairy (milchig), Meat (fleishig), and Parve. Parve is any other food besides meat and dairy. Like, fruit and vegetables, grains, juices, pasta, other drinks, etc. Fish and eggs are apparently considered parve. In kashrut, you can't mix dairy and meat. The reason behind this is a line from Exodus: You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk. If you're really strict (and can afford to do so, or your house already has it) you have to have 2 separate stoves. So there's no contamination while cooking. Also, separate utensils, cookware, dishes, sinks, etc. designated as either dairy or meat. (If you don't have separate stoves, there are ways to go about that, too. But, it's easier with them.) There's a certain amount of time you're supposed to wait between having a dairy meal and a meat one. After a meat one, it varies, but many say about 6 hours. (For some communities, like Dutch Jews they only wait an hour.) After a dairy one, it's much less time. In fact, some say you just need to wash your mouth out, or chew some bread to get the residue off your teeth. Some wait about an hour. You can have parve with anything.

What I still don't get, is why you can't have poultry and dairy. Birds aren't mammals. So, you wouldn't be eating them in their mother's 'milk'. I've heard the main explanation as it'd look too close to having things like beef and cheese. Well, what about those Boca burgers with cheese? They're supposedly ok. But, I think they look more like the real thing, so that argument doesn't really hold up to me. Just the idea that it may look like something it isn't. (Heck, then wouldn't most Passover foods be treif this way?) Plus, why is it ok to have eggs and poultry together if I follow the original logic with meat and dairy? Fish is ok with dairy too, considering it's parve...These are the areas of it I haven't found definitive answers for. The rest of the laws make sense to me.

There are more during the holiday of Pesach or Passover. Depending on what your family background is, they could be more strict about it than others. There have been fights between ethnic groups of Jews because of this. They're not huge fights, but more like the sides get irritated with each other. I'm Ashkenazic, which are Jews who originally came from Germany and eastern Europe. They have some of the strictest laws on Passover food. Sephardic Jews originally come from Spain and the Mediterranean. They follow the main laws for it, and don't add more restrictions to it. They tend to think the added restrictions that Ashkenazim (plural form) have for it, are 'stupid'. So, you can see already the tension between them. It's mainly just during Passover. They also have different customs and traditions for the holiday, and the rest of the year. Same with other groups of Jews. We come from all over the world. These 2 seem to be the biggest groups, though.